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Spain had its credit rating cut two levels by Fitch Ratings, which cited the “intensification” of the euro crisis, slower Spanish growth and regional finances as risks to the nation’s debt outlook. Fitch cut its rating to AA- from AA+, the company said in a statement today from London. The outlook is negative.

Chrysler Group LLC, seeking a new labor agreement with the United Auto Workers, is in “some pretty intense” talks with the union that should go over the next three to four days, the automaker’s top executive said.

The U.S. government’s budget deficit in the fiscal year that ended on September 30 was $1.3 trillion, equal to 8.6 percent of gross domestic product, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Friday.

Ping Capital’s streak of triple-digit performance is now at serious risk. The New York-based firm, founded by former SAC Capital Advisors trader Ping Jiang, plummeted 19.1% last month,Dealbreaker.com reports. The firm’s Exceptional Value Fund is now down 12.63% on the year—it was once up as much as 13.8% this year.

A Korean court has rapped private equity firm Lone Star Funds for manipulating the stock price of a bank in which it owns a controlling stake. The Seoul court fined a Lone Star unit US$21 million and sentenced the former head of its South Korean office, Paul Yoo, to three years in prison. On the bright side, the ruling appears to clear the way for Lone Star to sell its stake in Korea Exchange Bank to Hana Financial Group for US$4.1 billion.

Though he’s now retired, hedge fund billionaire George Soros is still fighting to remove a stain from his otherwise impressive reputation. But he’s been stymied in his latest bid to have a five-year-old insider-trading conviction dismissed.

A Morgan Stanley banker identified as a source of insider information during Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam’s trial earlier this year has been fired. Kamal Ahmed was let go in May, two months after his name surfaced at Rajaratnam’s trial. Morgan Stanley said that Ahmed, who worked in California, was found to have violated its disclosure policies following an internal investigation, the Financial Times reports.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and 10 other UK financial institutions were downgraded by Moody’s to reflect the reduced likelihood that the UK government will bail them out in a future crisis, even as a European effort to recapitalise the continent’s banking system appeared to gather momentum.

Belgium Will Invest in Dexia (WSJ)

Belgium is ready to invest in troubled French-Belgian bank Dexia SA (DEXB.BT), Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said Wednesday. “We’re certainly ready to invest, but in what form, and who our partners should be is the subject of discussion in coming days. I have no pre-decisions about this,” Reynders told Bel RTL radio.